APN+ ARV buyers club

[Guest guest]

Please Help to Keep Positive Activists in Asia-Pacific Alive

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE WILLING TO HELP

Dear Friends

A small group of HIV-positive people have decided that it is time to

support our peers to gain greater access to anti-retroviral medication

(ARV), particularly now that the price has come down in the

Asia-Pacific region to about US$1 per day. You can help us to achieve

this (see below).

Governments and NGOs are increasingly recognising the need to involve

positive people in any successful response to AIDS, but unfortunately,

by the time most positive people have become proficient in the world

of AIDS, they begin to get ill. Without access to ARV they die. Of

the 12 English-speaking HIV-positive people who were doing public AIDS

education in schools and workplaces in Manila in 1997, only four are

still alive. Of the original seven country team leaders who started

the APN+ Human Rights Project in 1998, four have passed away. We have

lost the majority of our most prominent HIV-positive activists over

the past five years. This year, the passing of our positive leaders

in Indonesia and India, Suzana Murni & Ashok Pillai, was an enormous

blow to all of us. These people were among the region's most valuable

assets in changing the face of AIDS for everybody.

It is time we nurtured the emerging activists, mentor them, build

their skills and keep them alive so that they continue to be effective

advocates and pass on their skills to their peers. Although some of us

manage to get access to ARV for one or two people, it is not enough,

and now that the price has dropped so radically, we think there are

many more friends who might be willing to help to keep more positive

people alive.

Creation of Fund for Access to ARV in Asia

APN+ is currently setting up a Buyers' Club for access to cheap ARVs.

Because we are supplying medication for personal and not commercial

use, we do not contravene international trade agreements. APN+ will

establish a system to ensure there is medical back-up advice on

treatments' side effects, adherence issues and monitoring of all

recipients of medication. In each country in which the buyers club

will operate, a positive person will be trained as a treatments'

advocate so that they can advise their peers on all aspects of

treatment choices, adherence, side effects, etc. This person will

work closely with the nominated medical doctor in-country.

Unfortunately many activists who are working still cannot afford to

buy the medicine even at the current low price of US$1 per day.

We realise the need to set up a regional fund to pay for immediate

access to medication for key activists in the region who could not

otherwise afford ARVs, until such a time as they gain affordable

access within their own countries. We have now set up such a fund by

opening a bank account. Because of the greater stability of the

Australian dollar (as opposed to the Thai baht), the bank account has

been opened in Australia. The fund does not have tax deductability or

charitable status. It will work solely on trust. Suzanne Lau-Gooey,

the Chairperson of Positive Women () and I are the co-

signatories. In the long term, we will work towards establishing the

fund as an organisation with charitable status, if it takes off in a

big way.

Donations can now be deposited into this account. No person will go

onto medication unless there is a guaranteed supply for three years,

ie, at least US$1,000 per person.

In Burundi, despite 9 years of civil conflict, positive people have

attracted funding to provide ARV medication to 1,000 positive people.

There is nothing stopping us from doing something similar in our

region.

WAYS THAT YOU CAN HELP

We know there are many AIDS / development workers in the field who may

wish to contribute in sponsoring a positive person to go on ARV. We

are starting small and building from a firm basis. If you cannot

donate money yourself, please cut and paste this letter to anybody

that you think may be willing to help.

If you wish to make a one-off donation to help to kick start the fund

or a regular standing order, please make deposit directly into the

following bank account:

Bank: Commonwealth Bank, Australia

Branch: Clifton Hill (326 Queen's Parade, Clifton Hill, ,

Australia, 3068)

BSB: 063307

Swift Code: CTBAAU 2S

Account name: " ARV Access "

Account number: 10129361

Or write a cheque to " ARV Access " and forward it to:

31 York Street,

North Fitzroy,

,

Australia, 3068

If you want us to remind you about the fund in six months time, simply

send a blank message to <mailto:s.paxton@...>

s.paxton@... with the subject title:

" Remind me about ARV Access in 6 months "

If you make a contribution, it would be great if you let us know via

e-mail so that we can track most of the deposits. You can, of course,

remain completely anonymous. If there are several people together in

one

place who wish to contribute to the fund, it may be more sensible to

do

it as one larger transactions to cut down on bank/exchange charges.

Our hope is that by December 1st we can ensure that at least a handful

of people who are currently desperately in need of ARV will have begun

treatment.

Thank-you,

Yours positively,

Paxton

APN+Advisor

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society

La Trobe University

(On behalf of many others)

PS: If you want an update at the end of the year on how the fund is

progressing, send a blank message to

<mailto:s.paxton@...>

s.paxton@... with the subject title:

" Update me on the ARV Access fund "

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